55555

It is a possibility! Here is a potential schedule using that kind of contest.I am assuming the contest will be held in February (nowhere near definite), and let's say I am assuming 16 entries, which is probably generous.It's not perfectly randomized, but oh well. Examples are examples.I had assumed that such a setup would extend the contest too long; certainly, it would run longer than one using traditional polls. But taking up the entire month isn't too bad, is it?I might have to scrap this whole "revision period" thing, gah.

What if you had the comic makers that advance make a new comic for each round of voting? In an MOCing contest I participated in that's how they did it. This would admittedly make the process longer, but probably more epic.I'm not sure about the idea of everyone using the same characters. Would people enjoy using characters that they didn't invent themselves? However, making people use new characters could be a good idea, not allowing them to use any characters that they have used previously.- 55555

Just listened to your Leigh Gallagher interview and I enjoyed it a lot.I'm trying to get an MOCing podcast started, so I'll make sure to listen to your backlog of MOCist interviews when I get the time.KUTGW.- 55555

Also, I do believe that sprite comics should be allowed, while still allowing other kinds of comics, and I would hope that the judging is NOT even partially based on graphic quality (because Kahi would win every single time ). Seriously though, I know that when I started, I was absolutely terrible graphics wise. I still can't make backgrounds, although I have gotten better with spriting objects to a degree. If the judging was based even partially on graphics quality, then many new comic makers wouldn't enter, and it would only be people like Gavla and Kahi and others who think they can contend with them. You wouldn't garner new attention. Of course, there needs to be some basic standards, such as the text needs to be readable and written with correct grammar. It's extremely hard to read a comic when the text blends into the background and is written with improper grammar.

But, Windrider, has made it quite clear that we probably won't have judges for the contest. Even so, if we did, graphics should key in, because in most cases, graphics make a comic better. That is at least my point of view. I absolutely dislike comics with bad graphics (I mean like one's that make your eyes hurt when you have to squint to see certain things), no offense to the people who make them. It's just I don't find comics like that funny or well-done. So in a sense, graphics should be part of the judging, but then again, there are so many other categories that need to be judged that it wouldn't matter that much if you had graphics that are as good as Kahi, or some other amazing graphical-master that make comics. -Rez

Well, I simply meant that if graphics were a large factor of the "judging" for this contest, that people with spectacular graphics such as Kahi or Gavla would always win, and it wouldn't be fair to newer comic makers who don't have as much experience making extremely high quality graphics, or even experienced comic makers who simply don't have the time. I know that if I were to spend a lot of time on it, I could make better quality comics. I simply don't have the time to learn how to do it.However, I do agree that there needs to be a limit. It should not be painful to read, and make the readers eyes want to burn out of their head.

The point of voting or judging is to determine the overall quality of whatever is being evaluated. It's not a question of being fair to people who make inferior work.And listen to Pohuaki everyone, he knows of that which he speaks.- 55555

Have a good one, man.- 55555

Heh, I'll have to keep up with this comic.I really like the part where Nathan points toward the door, and the way you did the edge of the panel where the door slammed. Well composed.One thing I'd recommend you work on is character individuality. Just so the characters are more easily distinguishable from one another. Mostly this applies to the Nathan8478 representation, his hair seems to be the same color as Velox's and the shape of it varies. Give him a hat something.Anyway, KUTGW.- 5555

For the record, the workshop idea sounds interesting, but also like a whole lot of work. I'll keep that idea in mind for later, depending on how much response there is to this one, but I'd rather not do it now. The nice thing about it beyond the obvious is it wouldn't require any specifics in terms of what the art would be, as long as it would fit in this forum, so it could have a lot of potential.

My general theory of themes is that the theme should be just restrictive enough to give people ideas. If it's too general than people are uninspired.Theme Idea: Six of You Now, a hero outnumbered by foes.- 55555

To start my post I'd just like to say that I'd rather have a Bionicle focused contest than a wider Lego themed contest. But, since Bones is not eager to do that, I'll continue with the premise of a Lego wide theme.Origins (Alternately titled: Recruiting): How did the Ninjago guys become Ninjas? What started the Rock Raiders raiding rocks? Etc, for Time Cruisers, Exo Force, and of course Bionicle.Across State Lines: Take a villain from one theme and insert him in another theme. Makuta in the Ninjago world, Xplode in the Bionicle world, Sam Sinister in the Hero factory world, etc.Finest Hour: Battle scenes, with a cooler name. :PI'll try and think up some more, I'll be checking back.

A long while back, I once requested of a workshop-related contest, in which people can post their work in progress, get constructive criticism, and improve their work. There would be 1st place winners, but there is also secondary awards to those who improved the most, those who gave more valuable critiques, and those who acts like cheerleaders of sort.

This sounds good to me.- 55555

I'd rather have polls, personally; I'd hope that people could vote objectively in a contest. Comics generally don't take long to read, unlike the stories in Library contests (I'm not sure if any other contests have judges?), so it's not too much for people to read through everything.That might be too optimistic, I suppose, but I'd like to think it would work out.

You could do 50% judging and 50% voting, with both polls and judges and mixing the results.For a theme, how about Quest For the Masks? The characters in the comic would be attempting to find hidden masks, like the Toa did.Good luck with the contest.

I see comics as Scott McCloud defined them: juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer. That's really it. To me, sprite comics and hand-drawn comics are of the same token, the same purpose, if you will. They're just different styles that are used to achieve what they set out to do.

I just want to take this opportunity to say that I know who Scott McCloud is. - 55555

Really, I'm surprised. Pretty daring moves by Lego all around, especially letting us know so far ahead like this.I'll just sit back and see where your new crazy train goes Lego, hope these gambles pay off big.- 55555

I've always loved the music from the old Gamecube game Burnout 2, but alas, it is nowhere to be found.Besides that, I'm more into movie soundtracks, though I have listened to the Portal credit and in game music a few times.- 55555

Kakaru, BlackSix, and Bonesiii come to mind, though I think I may prefer bonesiii's earlier non-gold one. Black Six's is awesome because (I think) it was drawn by Schizo Kaita, and kakaru's is very visually apealing though I have no clue what it's from. Gotta dig bluescale butterflies on film. And I agree with Taka Nuvia that her's is pretty nice.And I do like my own.- 55555

I believe you can map that storm, though I've never done it. Anyway, you can certainly wander around until you find your way out. The game is beatable, but has a number of glitches that will kill your game if triggered. My sister once got all almost all the way to the end, after winning a bunch of Kohlii matches and getting tons of skill points, but then did two things in the wrong order and got stuck.Fun game though, even though it is prone to spontaneous crippling.- 55555

And the entry period is over, the judging will commence.Until we can get you some results (should be less than a week), go read the entries!- 55555

The point was that GregF doesn't want to come back, himself. It's not like anything can overcome that. Except money.

Unless this is just a poorly expressed joke, it does not do justice to Greg.Greg has spent much of his own time over the many years of Bionicle on here answering questions, and hosting contests while reicveing no monetary rewards. He has written Bionicle serials that he cannot possibly have been paid for since the end of Bionicle. The reason he does this is for enhancing the Bionicle storyline, as an end in itself.And as for your theory that he is afraid of the questions he will be asked, that doesn't seem consistent with his past actions. Even when people tried to slow down the flow of questions to save Greg trouble, he would tell them to just keep sending as many as they wanted. He has always welcomed questions.The real reasons for his absence are obvious and have been stated many times in this topic. Firstly, Lego's new rule about talking to kids + The Great Downtime cut him off completely from the fanbase. Secondly he has a baby to take care of, which has cut into his writing time. Thirdly, with the success of Ninjago, I wouldn't be surprised if he has more work than before.Subsequently he has understandably lost the habit of writing serials.---That said, I would be REALLY happy if he came back.I don't know if your read this topic Greg, but if you do, please come back and take care of your other baby, Bionicle. - 55555

Happy New year! 2012 is here, and likewise Project 2012 is completed. The calendar has a different piece of artwork for every month, all of them original, created exclusively for this project (except for ToM Dracone's April image).The collaboration includes the work of ten artists, among them such stars as Vezok's Friend and ToM Dracone, along with lesser known artists such as Phyoohrii and Metax.With no further ado, I present the fruits of our our diverse labors...(Click image)

Past Months:

January By Vezok's Friend

February By 55555

March By MatoroIgnika

April By ToM Dracone

May By Cherixon

Credits:MatoroIgnika (Founder, Artist)55555 (Organizer, Design Consultant, Artist)Xccj (Coding Wizard)Vezok's Friend (Cover Artist)ToM Dracone (Artist, Design Consultant)Metax (Artist, Consultant)Cherixon (Artist)Phyoohrii (Artist)Legolover-361 (Artist)Brave Dragon (Artist)

Monthly updated userbar, no credit requested:

[url="http://www.bzpower.com/board/index.php?showtopic=2709"][img=http://www.majhost.com/gallery/kanoka94/Project2012/januarybar.png][/url]

Check out the calendar, make sure to check it every month for new art.Here's to 2012, may it be filled with good fortune and lack of apocalypses.

- 55555

The way to keep such forums alive and to attract new members to them is contests. I joined BZP for a Greg contest a long time back, and I have no doubt that others did to. If we reliably had quality contests in all of those forums those forums would grow and BZP would grow. There are a lot of MOCists out there who are not on BZP, there are writers, and there are artists. Bionicle pieces, the Bionicle storyline, and the Bionicle world are great jumping off places for creative endeavors, and that jumping off place is best reached from this website.

You know the point about Contest is valid, I myself joined due to a contest(which I never ended up entering. ). However Contests may also turn away members who feel ashamed of their work, in comparison to others.

I think the overwhelming majority would be attracted rather than turned away. I don't think your point is significant..- 55555

We're short staffed and I've been working on other thing recently. Sorry for the long waits, I'll start filling requests soon.

Um, its been a few weeks so I kinda need it to be done soon (soon = a fortnight) or never.

Roger that.- 55555

I think that for BZP to grow and subsequently survive, it needs to focus more on the Creative Outlet. All other forms of Bionicle discussion are finite, you can only theorize or discuss sets/collectibles for so long when there are no new sets/storylines emerging. For BZPower to survive while maintaining in some degree it's Bionicle fansite identity (an identity I would consider valuable) I think it needs to keep the creating members. Creative output based off of Bionicle is infinite, and I do not use that word lightly. Tahu can be drawn in the same pose, with the same pencil, fighting the same villain in the same location from many-many-many angles, open up the pose, medium, setting, and character possibilities and the potential for art subjects becomes not only infinite, but interesting. The same goes for the fan fiction forums (RPGs included), and BBC.The way to keep such forums alive and to attract new members to them is contests. I joined BZP for a Greg contest a long time back, and I have no doubt that others did to. If we reliably had quality contests in all of those forums those forums would grow and BZP would grow. There are a lot of MOCists out there who are not on BZP, there are writers, and there are artists. Bionicle pieces, the Bionicle storyline, and the Bionicle world are great jumping off places for creative endeavors, and that jumping off place is best reached from this website.(Note, I didn't read much of this topic beyond the first post, so if this has been mentioned I'm not aware of it.)

Next point - I do not foresee a time when BZPower will allow political or religious discussion. I don't want to moderate it, and I don't want to have to ask our staff to do it. I don't care how many of our members are mature enough to carry on such discussion - all it takes is one to ruin it. And yes, politics and religion are very different from other types of off-topic discussion in that people tend to be very polarized on them, which leads very easily to the arguments and flame wars we try to avoid.

Eh, and I'd say it's a matter of "Why should it be allowed". This is firstly a Bionicle site, secondly a Lego site, and thirdly a general nerd site. Such discussion is not in any of those categories.- 55555

I made the simple mistake of moving to a new server, but did it during most of the staff's finals week. Whoops D:HS01 is "mostly" restored, if not fully by now. BS01 is much larger, so needs more work.

Do you think it'll take 5 months to return to glory?

That was a good reference to Bzpower's downtime. but back on topic i did find it annoying that bs01 is partially down since surprisingly i have been needing information on bionicles allot in the last month. I do hope it comeback fully soon and that they will keep us posted.

Yeah, you don't realize how much you use something until it's gone.I've needed BS01 a lot lately too. Come back soon!- 55555

Happy birthday! - 55555

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/kanoka94/stuff/dralcav.jpg

[url="http://www.bzpower.com/board/index.php?showtopic=2075&st=0&p=78337entry78337"][img=http://www.majhost.com/gallery/kanoka94/stuff/dralcasm.jpg][/url]

Came out better than I expected. Sorry for the wait, enjoy.- 55555

Alright ladies & gents, there's no one online who has the power to close the poll at the moment, but the official polling period is over. Votes added after this post ARE NOT VALID, and willl not effect the final scoring.The winners topic will be posted tomorrow, I promise.Until then,- 55555

Welcome aboard gents!Tolkien, I've admired your stories, good taste in literature, and even your sprites over the years.And Micah/Kakaru/Arkov! I would not have expected this when we were on Jigsaw last Spring. :PLookin' forward to workin' with you guys. If you have a question (and Xccj isn't online) just ask me.And I commend B6 on his selection.- 55555

The origins of the word 'alphabet', come from the fact that it was created as a result of the first wager ever recorded in human history. A man was bet (at odds of 7 to 1) that he could not name all of the currently existing letters in ten seconds first try. The man had subtly prompted that this bet be made, and had prepared ahead of time by composing and memorizing a song containing allthe letters of the current alphabet. He then sang the song in only 6.4 seconds, and won the bet.NOTE: The above has occasionally been disputed by 'historians'.- 55555

Just out of curiosity, what happened to the rest of the entries? Not chosen for either the Judge's choices or the People's Choice poll? I'm not sure if this would be allowed in the other topic instead, but just a question.

From the group of entries that you're talking about, 33 entries, there will be five or so Honorable Mentions, but beyond that, alas, they won't get any official recognition. Hopefully every story got at least one decent review, and if not the writer can post it to the SS Critics Club.- 55555